Andy Levy, 47, said he decided to have a bar mitzvah because of his new purpose in life. He is in his synagoguereading over the Torah with, from left, Rabbi Julian Cook, 61; Sam Kaplan, 27, and Pam Stroman, 57.

Some things your heart, mind and soul can’t fully appreciate when you are 13.

Friends, school and dating often are the priorities for many adolescents – not necessarily developing a spiritual and cultural identity.

That’s why a growing number of Jewish adults in their 30s, 40s and 50s say now is the right time to have their bar and bat mitzvahs.

They are decades removed from when the Jewish rite of passage into adulthood traditionally takes place. But they say their life experiences will give the ceremony relevance and their maturity will make it meaningful.

Some had the option to do it when they were teens but chose not to. Others are converts who want to deepen their faith. A large group are women who were not allowed to have the ceremony when they were younger.

No matter their age or reasons, all believe having their bar or bat mitzvah will jump-start a journey into greater understanding.

While no one has kept track of how many people are doing this, Jewish theologians say the grassroots occurrence has grown legs. Something that began in the late 1960s with individuals approaching their rabbis for private instruction has transformed into entire classes being offered each year among Conservative and Reform Jews across the country.

“People have asked for numbers for a long time, but all we can tell you is that it’s gone from the tens to the hundreds to definitely the thousands,” says Francie Schwartz, adult learning coordinator with the Union for Reform Judaism in New York.

“Many rabbis and cantors are telling us that they are asked to do class after class after class. This has become a true labor of love – to teach and share Jewish wisdom and tradition with adults who for whatever reason never received this as a young person.”

It’s become such a widespread ritual phenomenon that it’s difficult to visit a congregation that doesn’t have an adult bar or bat mitzvah class, says Rabbi Marc Wolf of the Jewish Theological Seminary for Conservative Judaism in New York.

“People are reclaiming Judaism,” Wolf says. “They are having a religious awakening later in life, and their participation has breathed new life into conservative congregations.”

The American cultural tilt toward all things spiritual spawned in the 1990s shows no signs of waning, say theological experts. And no faith has gone untouched.

For adult Catholics, it’s confirmation. For Protestants it’s baptism. For Conservative and Reform Jews, it has become the adult bar and bat mitzvah.

Inherent in all of these ritual practices is the desire to discover meaning in one’s life.

At 47, Andy Levy never needed that more than when his mother passed away.

In the early 1970s, some Reform Jews didn’t closely observe traditional religious rituals such as the bar mitzvah. The root of the Reform branch of Judaism allowed for more choice – so when Levy’s parents gave him the option of whether to have his bar mitzvah, he chose not to.

But after his mother’s death, Levy began to see the bar mitzvah as a spiritual path to transform his life.

“I was looking for a greater connection,” says Levy. “I wanted to do more for my (Jewish) community, and I had this spirituality awakening in me that wanted me to learn more about my faith.”

The decision is not taken lightly.

Adults who pursue the study generally spend every Saturday for a year or more attending classes to learn Hebrew, Jewish history and Torah study.

In some respects, they get off easier than children who spend much longer completing the process. Kids spend three or more years, twice a week, learning Hebrew. They also attend religious school from kindergarten through seventh grade.

But the commitment of devoting every Saturday morning for a year or more to study can be a stumbling block for adults already burdened with juggling workloads and family responsibilities. Learning another language later in life also can be frustrating.

For example, last October when Levy began the Adult B’Nai Mitzvah (the plural form of bat and bar mitzvah) class offered by Congregation Emanuel in Denver, eight other students attended with him.

A year later, only four students, including Levy, remained.

Technically, the adults don’t have to have a bar or bat mitzvah at all. Jewish law says that when boys are 13 and girls are 12, they already have become adults in the eyes of their community and synagogue.

Dedicating the time to study becomes a testament of accomplishment, as well as faith.

“People chose to do it because they want to be recognized as having obtained that level of knowledge, ability and skills,” says Rabbi Julian Cook of Congregation Emanuel.

The journey ends with adult students leading a Shabbat service, reading portions from the Torah and reciting prayers and songs in Hebrew. The ceremony usually is attended by the entire synagogue with hundreds of family members and friends witnessing the event.

Valeska Schwarz, 25, said at least 500 people attended the ceremony she shared with Levy and their classmates. She said she was nervous when she took the long walk from her seat to the bimah, or podium.

“I’m not a great singer, and my heart was throbbing,” Schwarz says. “I swear I was having palpitations. I felt like I was going to faint. I was really considering just stopping, turning back around and going back to my seat.”

But she made it.

“I didn’t sing it as best as I practiced, but I got it done,” she says. “It was really scary, but it was also invigorating. I’ve come so far and put so much work into my education that it was really important for so many people to witness it and be a part of it.”

And now, Schwarz and all of her adult classmates can be called upon to participate in any service held around the world, says Rabbi Jamie Korngold, executive director of Adventure Rabbi Synagogue in Boulder.

They will read from the same ancient scroll used by their ancestors. And knowing that Jews in Shabbat services everywhere are reading from the same passage creates a sense of continuity, Korngold says.

“When you are able to stand there and read and chant from the Torah, you feel a real sense of connection with your Jewish heritage and a pride for the Jewish faith that has carried on for thousands of years,” Levy says.

Levy and his three classmates each represent the kinds of adults who are being drawn back into Judaism through their bar and bat mitzvahs, says Schwartz.

Levy and Sam Kaplan, 27, were Jews who chose not to have a ceremony earlier in life but are doing it as adults to reaffirm their faith.

Schwarz came from a nonpracticing Jewish family and saw her bat mitzvah as a way to gain the education that eluded her as a child.

Convert Pam Stroman, 57, saw the ritual as a public way to declare her commitment to a new faith.

“When 13-year-olds do it, they are announcing that they are now a man or a woman,” Stroman says. “I guess doing this was my way of saying I finally grew up, too. I am committed to being a Jew, and I’m ready to assume all the responsibilities, obligations and leadership roles that go along with that.”

Schwartz also has observed other people being drawn into the Judaism fold. Those include men and women who had their bar and bat mitzvahs as children but decided to have it again as adults, and family members celebrating the traditional rite together – parents and their children, and grandparents and their grandkids.

Cassie Fishbein, 41, chose the B’Nai Mitzvah to strengthen her family bond with her children, Jacob, 13, and Sara, 11.

The family will study in Ohio where they live but plan to have their ceremony next year atop a Colorado mountain. The date of their planned ceremony, Aug. 26, 2006, just happens to mark the 18th anniversary of Fishbein’s conversion to Judaism.

“Standing up with my two children to read from the Torah on the anniversary of my conversion will be a completion of my journey,” says Fishbein. “It will also be a continuation of all our of involvement in our faith and with each other as a family.”

The bottom line to this phenomenon is that the adults don’t want their religious education to stop, Schwartz says.

“They want to get it where they are now in life,” Schwartz says. “They refuse to have their understanding of their faith remain at a child’s level, and they are demanding that their spiritual and religious understanding be brought up to par.”

According to Schwartz, most theologians thought the phenomenon of adult bar mitzvahs would slow or eventually fade after a generation of disenfranchised women who had not been allowed to have a ceremony in the past were encouraged to do so now.

The first American bat mitzvah didn’t take place until 1922.

Instead, the number of congregations teaching the class and performing the rite among men and women continued to grow among Conservative and Reform synagogues from the 1940s through the early 1970s.

“We heard from so many (Reform) congregations that their congregates were beating them over the head and telling them they wanted to have this experience,” Schwartz says.

So many rabbis were contacting the union for information on how to carry out the ceremony that Schwartz wrote “Affirming Our Identity: Adult B’Nai Mitzvah” three years ago to serve as a guideline. Of the 900 or so Reform congregations in America, the document was mailed to more than 700.

“If this were the entertainment industry, you could definitely say that the bar and bat mitzvah have legs,” Schwartz says.

Unlike most children who often were pressured to carry out the rite by their family, adults have reached a point where they actively want the education and are willing to devote the energy needed to get it.

Not having that intimacy can leave gaps in their cultural psyche.

Without it, Schwarz says, she didn’t fully appreciate who she was.

At the age when she should have had a bat mitzvah, her parents were getting divorced, so observing the ceremony wasn’t a priority.

But she didn’t appreciate how vital the highly present Jewish culture in New York was in carving out her identity until she went to school in Fort Collins, where the community was minuscule.

“The way I spoke didn’t fit in,” says Schwarz. “I was trying to find Temptee cream cheese and knishes in local grocery stores. People made fun of my vocabulary. I would say the word “schlep” (a Yiddish term for carrying something), and everybody would say, ‘What’s that?’ Something was missing.”

She started attending events hosted by the Hillel Jewish organization on campus, and after she graduated, she moved to Denver and eventually joined Congregation Emanuel. A blurb in the synagogue newsletter about Adult B’nai classes caught her eye.

“I felt having a B’nai Mitzvah would be another step for me to becoming who I am and discovering more about my culture, my people,” Schwarz says.

Sam Kaplan had been raised in a Jewish household (his father is Jewish and his mother converted three years ago). But it upset him to know he never truly had embraced it.

When he was 13, he had to choose between studying for his bar mitzvah or participating in football, wrestling or lacrosse, and athletics always won out. When he graduated from high school, getting into a good college, nailing his first job and dreaming of returning to graduate school pushed Judaism to the back burner again.

He found inspiration to renew his commitment when he listened to the speech his mother gave last June during her bat mitzvah ceremony.

“Raising a Jewish family was important to her,” Kaplan says. “It had always been this major force in my life that had been influencing everything in it – my family, who I am today. I just decided that I wanted (Judaism) to be more than a presence, but a priority in my life.”

Judaism experts say the trend of having bar and bat mitzvahs later in life has brought energetic leaders into the fold.

Adults, unlike teenagers, continue to participate in Jewish synagogue and community life long after their ceremonies are over. They volunteer, take additional classes to continue their education, and become leaders and role models in their synagogues.

“For most adults, it lights a spark that keeps on burning,” Cook says.

Levy ended his 25-year career in the retail industry to take a position at the Jewish Community Foundation.

“I will be able to help sustain Jewish life and values in Colorado for generations to come,” he says.

Kaplan intends to teach religious school for elementary students. Schwarz is attending a Jewish retreat for three weeks in California to learn more about Judaism and how to integrate “being kosher” into her life. Stroman volunteers and speaks to students considering conversion during introductory Judaism classes.

“It’s lifelong learning,” Stroman says. “That was my commitment. If I was going to do this, I wouldn’t just be a spectator.”

The bar mitzvah, literally meaning “son of the commandments,” is deemed to be the onset of puberty for Jewish boys at age 13. The bat mitzvah means “daughter of the commandments” and is observed by girls at age 12.

At this time, Jewish children become obligated to observe the commandments, are held responsible for their sins and can participate more fully in religious services. The term is often used to refer to either the individual completing the ceremony or the ceremony itself. The ceremony is marked by the bar or bat mitzvah being called up to the Torah to recite a blessing, chant, sing and read a short passage from the holy book. Also at this age, the bar or bat mitzvah can be counted in a minyan (a quorum of 10 adults needed to carry out a weekly prayer).

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